1.
SV PAN: Porsche car number 72, leaving Laverton, Australia on London-Sydney rally.
0.08

2.
SV: Mercedes, number 33, leaving.
0.10

3.
GV: other Mercedes past camera.
0.18

4.
SV PAN: third Mercedes past camera.
0.22

5.
AERIAL VIEWS: car along road. (3 shots)
1.07



Initials RH/0145


SPORT MOTOR RALLYING

Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved

Background: The Australian outback has taken a heavy toll of cars and drivers in the Marathon London to Sydney car rally. A Frenchwomen, Christine Dacremont driving a Fiat, was flown to hospital in Darwin on Thursday (21 September) with serious injures after her Fiat collided with a Citroen. And elsewhere, rough unmade roads and clouds of dust took their toll, forcing several cars out of the rally.

SYNOPSIS: Veteran Polish driver Sobieslaw Zasada, who'd earlier led the rally, lay second at the end of the stage from Laverton, north-east of Perth. Third was Andrew Cowan, of Britain. Another Mercedes, driven by Britain's Tony Fowkes, won the stage....arriving an hour ahead of schedule.

But even though most drivers made good time through the Australian outback....with speeds averaging a hundred miles an hour (that's and 60 kilometres an hour) the rough roads took their toll. As well as the accident involving the French driver...several other cars had been forced out with a variety of mechanical problem by the time the stage ended. That was at the lonely Warburton Mission Station near the border with the New Territory. Of the 51 cars which set out from Fremantle, near Perth, on the Australian leg of the gruelling rally, leading crews predict that only about 20 will eventually finish in Sydney.